Strawberry Vanilla

I reviewed this for Sororitea Sisters and it has posted, so now I can share the tasting note!

http://www.sororiteasisters.com/2021/01/22/strawberry-vanilla-no-961-tin-roof-teas-ashmanra/

I first tried this tea about seven years ago and I continue to pick it up now and then because it is really good to have on shelf. It is so easy to like and appeals to people who already love tea as well as people who are just starting on their tea journey. It pairs well with desserts and is lovely as a stand alone cup.

Although this came from Tin Roof Teas, I am 99.9% sure that it is sourced from Teageschwendner.

My excuse for buying this when I already have tons of tea is that my husband loves strawberry flavored teas, and he doesn’t like as many teas as I do, so I keep this on hand FOR HIM. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

The green base is a blend from three countries – India, Japan, and China. I think Indian green must be excellent for aroma teas because I am pretty sure Harney and Sons uses a lot of it in their flavored greens. It is pretty mild and very smooth, and has just enough briskness to make this go really well with food. If tea is too mild, food flavors can overwhelm it so you taste pretty much nothing, like drinking a cup of hot water.

The strawberry flavor is fresh and the tiniest bit tart like a real strawberry. This is all smoothed over by the lovely hint of warm vanilla.

I like to steep this at 175F for three minutes and resteep right away, combining the two for an economical pot. It works really well.

Tin Roof Teas is in Raleigh, NC. They do ship and some of their teas are available on Amazon.
Their Moroccan Mint is blended in house and is my hands down favorite of the type. And their Tung Ting is mouthwateringly good. There is a 15% discount for your first order after signing up for their newsletter, so go wild!

Now, not related to the tea but a funny tale about the Ashman that I wanted to share!

We had mild weather last Saturday so middle daughter hung her blankets out to dry. Unbeknownst to her, a little bee nestled on the fabric and as temps dropped toward evening he fell asleep. (This has happened before with both bees and lizards.) She brought the blankets in and left them in the laundry basket where the bee woke up due to the lovely warmth! Bee flies into den, Ashman gets an empty granola bar box to catch it because he doesn’t want to kill it. The bee practically flew right into the box, which he covered with a magazine and carried outside.

He comes in and I ask him if he released the bee and he said….he put it on the fleece blanket over the back of the porch rockers. BUT he tucked it into a fold so it wouldn’t get eaten by a bird in the morning before it has a chance to warm up.

Y’all. He tucked in a bee.

Sunday morning, he checks his bee and it is still sleeping peacefully in the blanket. So he pulls the rocker into a sunny spot and turns it so the bee is facing the sun. Hours later, he reports that he checked the fold of the blanket and his bee has flown away.

I hope this summer to have a story about jars of honey mysteriously appearing on our doorstep.